Student Body President Mary Cooper is one step closer to implementing a Safe Ride taxi program that would give off-campus students an affordable and safe transportation alternative.
Cooper initially proposed the program, which is modeled after the Panhellenic Council’s flat-rate taxi service, as one of her three primary platform points during her presidential campaign.
Cooper sent an email copy of the proposed taxi service to Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt on Sunday. She and other students who worked on the proposal said they hope to get more taxi companies involved with Kleinschmidt’s help.
“Student government doesn’t have the authority or resources to ask the taxi companies to adopt our proposal,” Cooper said.
“We can, however, present a comprehensive plan that benefits all of the stakeholders.”
She said because she’s never worked with the town before, she’s not sure what the final plan for the service will look like or when it will be implemented.
Students Abir Chatterjee and Ken Jameson are the two primary leaders of the plan.
Their proposal to Kleinschmidt contained two options based on two existing services — the University of Rochester’s plan, which charges different flat rates for eight locations, and a citywide flat-rate model such as the one in Houston, Texas.
The two options include one in which taxi drivers would charge separate flat fees for two zones in Chapel Hill. The other would charge riders $6 to ride throughout the town of Chapel Hill.
